Cyber attacks on unmanned aerial vehicles and cyber security measures

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are air vehicles that can be controlled by themselves or via a ground station, can operate with mission-route definition, and can stay in the air in a limited range and time. Today, UAVs are used for various missions in line with military and civilian purposes such as reconnaissance, observation, research, search, control and transportation. In the models used for military purposes, the gun can be mounted and turned into an armed UAV. Attacks on hardware and software systems of UAVs, which are increasingly used in line with developing life conditions and technologies, are also increasing. Especially attacks on communication systems and coordinate information come to the fore. Cyber attacks on UAV systems in general include Data transmission link attacks, GPS (Global Positioning System) Scam attack, authentication attacks such as Brute Force, attacks against source code vulnerabilities, and hardware port and protocol attacks. It is known that attacks on UAV systems cause loss of life and property. It also results in other damages such as task delay, data breach, task failure, and loss of prestige. In this study, after the components, features and introduction of UAV systems, security threats to UAV systems and cyber attacks are defined. Then, the precautions to be taken against threats and attacks are listed. Some of these, importance are subjecting UAV software, hardware and transmission systems to vulnerability and risk scanning, ensuring the security of transmission with data encryption methods, controlling data traffic with a firewall application and making access control secure.